Stroke; a journal of cerebral circulation
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Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) results in high mortality and morbidity for patients. Previous retrospective studies correlated the spot sign score (SSSc) with ICH expansion, mortality, and clinical outcome among ICH survivors. We performed a prospective study to validate the SSSc for the prediction of ICH expansion, mortality, and clinical outcome among survivors. ⋯ The SSSc demonstrated a strong stepwise correlation with hematoma expansion and clinical outcome in patients with primary ICH.
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Clinical Trial
Prospective quality initiative to maximize dysphagia screening reduces hospital-acquired pneumonia prevalence in patients with stroke.
Dysphagia can lead to pneumonia and subsequent death after acute stroke. However, no prospective study has demonstrated reduced pneumonia prevalence after implementation of a dysphagia screen. ⋯ A quality improvement initiative using a nurse-administered bedside screen with rapid bedside swallow evaluation by a speech pathologist improves screening compliance and correlates with decreased prevalence of pneumonia among patients with stroke.
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White matter changes (WMC) are a common finding on brain imaging and are associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke. They are most frequent in small vessel stroke; however, in the absence of comparisons with normal controls, it is uncertain whether WMC are also more frequent than expected in other stroke subtypes. Therefore, we compared WMC in pathogenic subtypes of ischemic stroke versus controls in a population-based study. ⋯ In contrast to small vessel ischemic events, WMC were not independently associated with other pathogenic subtypes, suggesting that WMC are unlikely to be an independent risk factor for nonsmall vessel events.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Ultra-early intravenous stroke thrombolysis: do all patients benefit similarly?
We previously reported increased benefit and reduced mortality after ultra-early stroke thrombolysis in a single center. We now explored in a large multicenter cohort whether extra benefit of treatment within 90 minutes from symptom onset is uniform across predefined stroke severity subgroups, as compared with later thrombolysis. ⋯ I.v. thrombolysis within 90 minutes is, compared with later thrombolysis, strongly and independently associated with excellent outcome in patients with moderate and mild stroke severity.